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In Virginia, congregations can commit to
a “Green Church Initiative Covenant.”
A UMNS graphic courtesy of
the Rev. Pat Watkins.
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United Methodists are “going green” at levels far beyond recycling
church bulletins and eliminating Styrofoam cups at coffee hour.
In California, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz is
constructing a new building that it hopes will achieve the highest
rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
In Massachusetts, students and people of faith are sleeping outside on
crisp fall nights to bring attention to the need for clean electricity
inside buildings.
In Virginia, congregations can commit to a “Green Church Initiative
Covenant” as part of the conference’s Caretakers of God’s Creation
ministry.
Throughout the country, congregations and communities are setting new
standards of stewardship, said Tyler Edgar, assistant director of
climate change and energy for the Eco-Justice Program of the National
Council of Churches.
“Over the past few years, local churches have begun to practice what
they preach on eco-justice and sustainability,” she said. “Churches are
supporting huge local gardens that donate the produce to low-income
families, erecting wind turbines reminiscent of the three crosses, and
engaging in local energy and sustainability initiatives that have the
potential to define their communities in the coming years.”
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Students and people of faith have slept on Boston Common on Sunday
nights this fall to bring attention to the need for clean electricity
inside buildings.
A UMNS photo by Diana Mai.
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Green values
The new environmentally friendly 20,000-square-foot Santa Cruz church,
led by the Rev. Mike Harrell, will be home to a congregation created
from a previous merger of three congregations.
“For us, it’s a manifestation of what we believe,” said James Campbell, the church project manager.
The building will use solar thermal and ground source heating and
photo-voltaic solar energy collectors for its renewable energy sources.
Windows are designed to capture as much daylight as possible. A living
water roof will insulate the building while reducing carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere and low flow fixtures will limit water consumption. A
cistern system will collect rainwater.
Church members are sharing their vision with the denomination and
through the National Council of Churches as a way to inspire others.
“The congregation as a whole believes in a transformed life for all and
they embrace the values that a green building can offer over time,”
said the project description.
Financial considerations had stalled the building project after the
initial groundbreaking two and a half years ago. But a Nov. 7 “earth
moving ceremony” marked a new start. Campbell projects a two-year
timeline.
The project ties the church into its Santa Cruz community in other ways as well.
Located in the Live Oak neighborhood, the new United Methodist building
will serve as a designated Red Cross shelter; provide space for a free
medical clinic through RotaCare, a program of Rotary International; and
offer afterschool child care and English as a Second Language classes.
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The Rev. Pat Watkins.
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A justice issue
On the opposite coast, Marla Marcum is making a public witness to
help generate the political will for change on environmental policies.
She took a year’s leave from her doctoral studies at Boston
University School of Theology to become coordinator for faith community
outreach with the Leadership Campaign, a student-led coalition
organized by Students for a Just and Stable Future, the Massachusetts
Council of Churches and the Somerville Climate Action Network.
She believes that global warming is a justice issue. “It’s always been
really clear to me that my faith calls me to look around (to see) who
benefits and who suffers under the conditions we’ve created in our
society?” said Marcum, chairperson of the climate change task force for
the United Methodist New England Annual (regional) Conference.
The target of the Leadership Campaign, which has spread to 24
campuses, is 100 percent “clean electricity” in the state by 2020.
The Rev. Jack Johnson, a United Methodist who leads the Massachusetts
Council of Churches, backs that goal and is encouraging action by the
council’s 1,700 member churches. “We have the opportunity to adopt this
progressive measure that could model for other states, as well as
Congress, in making an impact on climate change,” he said during a fall
press conference.
Burning fuels like coal and oil emit too many heat-trapping gases
like carbon dioxide and the buildup can result in global warming or
climate change. Leading scientists say the safe upper limit for carbon
is 350 parts per million, but the concentration in the earth’s
atmosphere today is 380 ppm and rising.
One way of calling attention to the problem is “refusing to sleep in
our homes and dorms that are powered by dirty electricity,” Marcum
said.
She had slept outside more than 20 nights by Nov. 20, including two
nights a week on the brick street in front of the Boston University
student center, where Mary Elizabeth Moore, theology school dean,
joined them one night.
Marcum also spends Sunday nights with others in tents on Boston
Common, which, technically, is illegal. The police, she said, usually
offer people the option of leaving before issuing citations, but many
stay. On Mondays, the campers lobby legislators at the nearby
Massachusetts Statehouse.
Becoming caretakers
In Virginia, a ministry linking biblical theology and a sense of
responsibility toward the Earth encourages church members to become
“Caretakers of God’s Creation.”
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Drummondtown United Methodist Church in Accomac, Va., developed a creation-related Vacation Bible School program.
A UMNS photo courtesy of the Rev. Pat Watkins.
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About 25 churches have signed the conference’s Green Church Initiative
Covenant, according to the Rev. Pat Watkins, a church and community
worker from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, who is the
ministry’s director. “We haven’t revolutionized the conference, but we
feel pretty good about the participation we’re getting,” he said.
Drummondtown United Methodist Church in Accomac, Va., developed a
creation-related Vacation Bible School program reflecting its Eastern
Shore location, allowing participants to travel from “seaside to
bayside” at the church and view different habitats and animals.
River Road United Methodist church in Richmond had water conservation
in mind when it remodeled the education wing several years ago. One
visitor was so impressed to learn that the waterless urinal in the
men’s room was saving up to 40,000 gallons of water a year that he and
his family decided to join the church.
“I call that my waterless urinal evangelism story,” Watkins said. He’s
heard similar stories “from churches that have attracted people because
they have creation care ministry teams.”
The Green Church initiative currently is being revised, he added, to
include options and goals in five categories – mission, evangelism,
stewardship, discipleship and workshop. A point system will allow
congregations to achieve different levels of “greenness.”
During their 2009 annual conference in Norfolk, Virginia United
Methodists called attention to the ecosystem of nearby Chesapeake Bay
by setting up a large outside exhibit of baptismal fonts from 18
districts.
“We called that whole display the baptismal water of the Chesapeake,” Watkins said.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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